Oliver Perry Cobb

Narrative:

     Oliver Perry Cobb was born on 25 Apr 1817 in Greene Co., Pennsylvania.^7,8,9
     He moved down the Ohio River by flatboat to Dearborn Co., Indiana, with his parents in 1818.^17,18,19 He was probably one of the two males under age 10 listed in the household of his father, Joshua Cobb, in the 1820 Federal Census of Laughery, Dearborn Co., Indiana.²⁰
     He moved to Decatur Co. in 1821 with his parents.^21,5,22 He was probably one of the two males age 10 to15 listed in the household of his father, in the 1830 Federal Census of Decatur Co., Indiana.²³
     Oliver was taught a home until he was twelve years only, when he started attending a log school house two miles away. He attended for three months a year until he was twenty, except when sugar-making began early, cutting short his school year. After his initial excursion in business he decided he needed further education, and enrolled in a three-month course in writing and arithmetic at the Greensburg Seminary.²⁴
     Oliver married Caroline S. Foulke, daughter of Aaron Foulke and Nancy Smith, on 3 Aug 1843 in Dearborn Co., Indiana, with William Johnson, and elder in the Baptist Church, offciating.^10,11
     Oliver and Caroline appeared on the 1850 Federal Census of Aurora, Dearborn Co., Indiana, enumerated 24 Jul 1850, reporting real estate valued at $35,000. Their children William, Louis and Nancy were listed as living with them, as were three apparent relatives of hers; Nancy Foulk, age 18, Jesse H. Foulk, age 10, and Esau S. Foulk, a river trader age 24; and 23-year-old Harvey Rowling, another river trader.²
     Oliver and Caroline appeared on the 1860 Federal Census of Aurora, Dearborn Co., Indiana, enumerated Jun 1860, reporting real estate valued at $30,000 and personal estate of $50,000. Their children William, Louis, Nancy, Martha, Orris and Caroline were listed as living with them, as were Adaline Bitner, a 16 year-old servant, Richard Block, age 18, and two apparently relatives of hers, Nancy Foulk, age 24, Homan Foulk, age 21. His brother John and his family are listed six households previously, apparently living close by.²⁶
     He was By 1862 Oliver was representing the firm of Cobb, Williams & Co., commission merchants, a partnership of his uncle, Oliver Perry Cobb and P. W. Williams, both of Aurora, at its offices at 35 Water St., in Cincinnati By 1862 in 35 Water St., Cincinnati, Ohio.²⁷
     Oliver and Caroline appeared on the 1870 Federal Census of Center Twp., Dearborn Co., Indiana, enumerated 1 Jul 1870, reporting real estate valued at $40,000 and personal estate of $18,000. Their children William, Louis, Nancy, Martha, Orris and Frank were listed as living with them, as were Nancy M. Faulk, age 37, and Jacob Mann, age 20, a farm laborer. His brother John and his family are listed five households previously, apparently living close by.²⁸
     Oliver and Caroline appeared on the 1880 Federal Census of Center Twp., Dearborn Co., Indiana, enumerated 3 Jun 1880. Their son Frank was listed as living with them, as was Nanie M. Foulk, age 42, identified as a companion, Mary Foulk, age 22, listed as a servant, and 3 year-old Oliver Gilbert Bailey, son of their late daughter Martha.²⁹

Becoming a River Trader --- Text Stolen from ReigelRidge.com !! ---

     Oliver's father allowed each of his boys to work for themselves a year before they reached age 21, and Oliver chose to hire himself to his father to work on the family farm. He earned $13 a month and a dollar a day for a month during harvest. He took his pay in weather-boarding (siding) cut from poplar trees in his father's saw mill, and use of the four-horse team to haul it to Aurora. He obtained a position as oarsman on a flat-boat going down the river to Natchez, Mississippi, which included the privilege to taking his lumber free of charge. Arriving there he sold his lumber, for which he had pad $12 per thousand, for $40 per thousand, and worked as a salesman until Spring. He returned home having earned nearly $1,000.²⁴

Very Successful Businessmen --- Text Stolen from ReigelRidge.com !! ---

     Oliver and his brother John were very successful businessmen, with interests in southeast Indiana, Cincinnati, and Mississippi. They owned a shipping business, chair factory, nail and iron works and a pork house.^30,31,32 They built a store room and pork house in 1850 at a cost of $5,000.³³ While Oliver seems to have regarded himself as a farmer initially, it is clear that both he and John were engaged in business in Aurora by the mid-1840s. They were engaged in pork packing extensively, shipping their product south, where they also had a business.^34,35
     By 1862 Oliver, in partnership with P. W. Williams, also of Aurora, had established Cobb Williams & Co., commission merchants, with offices at 35 Water St., in Cincinnati. His nephew James Wallace Christy represented the company there. By 1864 James' brother Henry had joined the firm as a clerk. About 1865 Williams left the firm, and it was known as O. P. Cobb, Christy & Co. By the next year Oliver was no longer involved and the firm became Christy Bros. & Co.³⁶
     During the war Oliver was appointed by the Federal Government as an agent to furnish forage for it. Aurora was at the time the second largest hay market in the western states.^37,38

The Aurora Iron and Nail Company --- Text Stolen from ReigelRidge.com !! ---

     The Aurora Iron and Nail Company filed articles of incorporation in Nov 1875. It was formed from the Aurora Iron Company, which had its origin as a rolling mill established in 1873 by John B. Evans, and the Haddock Nail Machine & Nail Manufacturing Company of Cincinnati. Capital stock was listed as $1,000,000, and the directors included Evans and Oliver Perry Cobb. It is not clear who the original officers were, but by 1881 the Cobbs were clearly in control. At that time, Oliver was the president and a director, and his brother John, his sons William and Frank, nephews John Dwyer and James A Stratton, and brother-in-law Lewis M. Foulk were all directors. Stratton was also the Secretary, and Foulk was the Treasurer.^39,40,41
     Oliver seems to have been a prolific inventor, or perhaps he had employees who were. In 1876 he was issued a patent for a nut lock. Then his interest seems to have turned to nail making. In 1880 he received a patent for a machine for sorting nails and in 1882 for pile for nail plate. In 1885 he obtianed a patent on "trace and ham connection," evidently related to the pork packing businesss.⁴²
     By Mar 1881 the company was apparently not doing well, and a group of Cincinnati share-owners filed suit, blaming the Cobbs. The suit, naming the officers and directors, and their banks as defendants, was brought by ten share-owners, owning about 5,900 of the 20,000 shares outstanding. They charged that management had purchased from O. P. Cobb & Co. large amounts of materials at much higher price than that company paid for them, and had let contracts for "certain pretended improvements" at the plant to Stedman & Co., a close associate of the Cobbs, at "extravagant prices." Some of the directors, including Oliver and John Cobb, were accused of taking "pretended and fictitious mortgages" from the company. The suit asked for appointment of a receiver and recovery of damages.⁴³
     The company's defenders lost no time; two days after the reports of the suit, three letters appeared in the Cincinnati newspapers. One, signed by management, save Oliver, denied all the charges, stating instead that the company would have failed had Oliver not provided nearly all the working capital. Another, by three "citizens of the city of Aurora," said that the charges were unjust, and that they had faith that a full investigation would show that. The third, by a committee of the firm's employees, said the employees had never been compelled to deal at the O. P. Cobb & Co. store, refuting a charge not reported in the earlier articles, and saying the works was "as good and systematic as any we ever worked in."⁴⁴
     The trial for appointment of a receiver ended 19 Apr 1881 with the share-owners withdrawing their request after the judge suggested he was not inclined to appoint one. Oliver then announced he intended to begin the next day to start foreclosure proceedings on the mortgage he held against the company. A few days later a long article in the Cincinnati Commercial recounted the "great injustice" that had been done by a letter in the Cincinnati Enquirer containing "false and malicious statements." The article continued that "the hostility of the Enquirer to Mr. Cobb can easily be explained from the fact that one of the editors has had a personal difficulty with a son of Mr. Cobb's, and hence the paper never fails to have anything published against" him (the Enquirer article has not been found.)^45,46,47
     After a three week trial in the counter-suit by the Cobbs to foreclose on their mortgages, the judge ruled on 13 Jun 1881 that the mortgages were valid and the foreclosure could proceed.^48,49

Cobb's Iron and Nail Company --- Text Stolen from ReigelRidge.com !! ---

     Cobb's Iron and Nail Company filed articles of incorporation 23 Aug 1881. Capital stock was listed as $450,000, and the directors were Oliver Perry Cobb, his son William, his nephews James and Thomas Cobb, James Greer, John D. Dwyer, and James A. Stratton. The Aurora Iron and Nail Company, now bankrupt, was merged into the new firm.^50,51,52 There seem to been labor troubles at the mills as well. On 3 Nov 1881 a newspaper reported that after a five-month strike, work would resume at the mills the following Monday.⁵³
     A highest flood of Aurora then known occurred in Feb 1883, when the Ohio River flooded a substantial part of town. The water was eight feet ten inches deep in the store of O. P. Cobb & Co. Cobb's Iron & Nail company was drowned out and had to stop operations, but aside from the loss of time the losses were reportedly not great.⁵⁴ In 1885 the company disposed of the sheet and bar mill and the right to use Cobb's patent process for manufacturing nails on 50 machines to another company. Both companies were then making 400 to 600 kegs of nails per day.⁵⁵
     The firm of O. P. Cobb & Company fell into financial hardship, and the creditors forced it into receivership. The assignee reported that there were sufficient assets to pay creditors only if claims then in the courts against the Illinois Central Railroad and the claims against the Federal government for hay and barges destroyed by Union forces in the Civil War were collected. Otherwise creditors would receive only ten cents on the dollar. At a meeting in Aurora on 26 Jun 1888 Oliver convinced creditors to accept a plan to return the company to management in order to pursue those claims.⁵⁶
     The court cases were not successful. The claim against the Federal Government was pursued in Congress, will little success. In Jun 1891, Oliver having died, P. W. Williams as surviving partner told creditors that the business was being closed. He said would pay their claims on a pro rata from available assets and distribute payments from the Federal claim, which he said totaled over $250,000, when they were collected.⁵⁷

Legal Troubles Prompt Unusual Wills --- Text Stolen from ReigelRidge.com !! ---

     The Cobbs' legal issues led to some unusual provisions in their wills. When Oliver and his wife, and John's wife, wrote their wills they left their property to their daughters-in-law rather than to their sons, who were still living. It seems they feared that the sons were exposed to claims that could be made against their property.
     Oliver left a will dated 6 Oct 1890 stating he was of Aurora, Indiana, in which he directed that after his debts were paid, that all his property of any type go to his wife. If she were not living at his death, he directed that his property should be equally divided between his daughter Alice, his daughters-in-law Alice Constance Fish, Mary Emma McCreary, Lura C. Milburn and Anna Gray Pattison, wives of his sons William, Louis, Orris and Frank, and grandson Oliver Gilbert Bailey, son of his late daughter Martha. He named his sons William and Frank as executors.⁵⁸
     Oliver was named an heir in the will of his wife, dated 16 Jan 1891 in Aurora, Indiana, to receive a life estate in her real estate, but only so long as none of his creditors sought legal process against the property. If they did, or at his death, it was to be divided between their daughter, daughters-in-law, and grandson.⁵⁹
     Maria, John's wife, wrote a will 3 Dec 1892 in which she left some of her property, including their home place, to him as a life estate, then everything was to go to their adopted daughter and their daugthers-in-law.⁶⁰ John had apparently transferred his property to his wife by 1892, as the family homestead was included in the property listed in her will. John died intestate, without a will, and his administrator told the court the only assets in his estate were some war claims which were then before Congress for allowance.⁶¹
     Oliver died on 28 Mar 1891 in Aurora, Dearborn Co., Indiana, at age 73.^12,9,13,14 He was buried in Riverside Cemetery, Aurora, Indiana.^15,16
     His will was probated on 6 Apr 1891 in Dearborn Co., Indiana.⁵⁸